A new report by Peace Dividend Trust about agribusiness in Haiti describes a truly local sector that involves a variety of businesses adding value to products, but also a sector constrained by poor infrastructure and transport.

The report is based on extensive interviews with a dozen Haitian agribusinesses that participated in the Food Expo hosted by PDT in Port-au-Prince in October 2011. The businesses interviewed ranged from small cooperatives selling fruits and vegetables to large beverage manufacturers that employ hundreds of people. The full report is available at http://buildingmarkets.org/files/Doing_business_in_Haiti’s_Food_and_Beverage_Sector.pdf

Vendor displays product line at the Food Expo sponsored by PDT in October 2011.

The report is aimed at buyers interested in purchasing Haitian foods and beverages and organizations that support Haiti’s agribusiness sector. The businesses interviewed source nearly all of their products and raw materials in Haiti and sell mainly to local retailers.

“Strengthening local production is the only way to grow the Haitian economy,” explained Sameer Tahmoush of Caribbean Market, which is also featured in the report as an example of the type of buyer to whom the agribusinesses sell their goods. “In all corners of Haiti you have people producing and looking to make a living. Making this living viable and sustainable is one of the most important things we as a supermarket can do.”

Most businesses also process their goods locally, including such products as jams, flour, and coffee. This adds local value to the final product and helps explain why an estimated two-thirds of Haitians depend on agriculture, either through subsistence farming or by working in other industries along the value-added chain. The agriculture sector directly accounts for more than 25 percent of Haiti’s GDP.

The biggest challenge facing the businesses interviewed is transportation: two-thirds stated that poor roads and problems finding appropriate vehicles make it difficult to transport goods and materials to markets or processing centers.

The firms interviewed were a sample of more than 30 Haitian agribusinesses that participated in the Food Expo, which was also attended by dozens of national and international companies and organizations interested in local purchasing. Although the businesses interviewed said Haiti’s large international community did not represent a significant customer base, two of the sellers surveyed were participants in USAID’s Water Initiative for National Natural Environmental Resource (WINNER) program designed to increase farmers’ yields (see photo at left). //

[…] release this week of PDT’s report on the agribusiness sector. Both the full report and a blog post about the report are available on the Peace Dividend Marketplace -Haiti website. As a young girl […]